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7
Wintersports in Finland
Finland is covered by snow and ice for čve months in a year. This makes Finland a natural
winter sports country. Finnish athletes have won medals at every Olympic Winter Games
since their beginning in 1924. In the all-time Winter Games medal table Finland current-
ly occupies tenth place with 161 medals –42 gold, 62 silver and 57 bronze.
Cross-country skiing has always been considered a national sport in Finland. No wonder
then that many of the most successful Olympic athletes have been skiers, such as Veikko
Hakulinen, Eero Mäntyranta and Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemi, all three-time Olympic gold
medallists. In Sochi 2014 Finland won three Olympic medals in cross-country skiing.
Finnish ski jumpers have enjoyed Olympic success since the 1950’s. Matti Nykänen won
four gold medals in is Olympic career, including all three in Calgary 1988. In Nordic com-
bined Samppa Lajunen won three gold medals in Salt Lake City 2002.
In Alpine sports Finnish successes have been fewer, which is not surprising for a land
with no mountains. Finland’s only Olympic medal in Alpine skiing so far is Tanja Poutiain-
en’s silver in women’s giant slalom in 2006. Finnish freestyle skiers and snowboarders
have been more successful. Janne Lahtela won gold in men’s moguls in 2002. In Sochi
2014 Enni Rukajärvi took silver in women’s snowboard slopestyle.
The most successful Finnish Olympic winter sports athlete of all time was Clas Thunberg,
who won a total čve gold medals in speed skating. Finnish speed skaters have in the
past few years returned to the fore at World Championship level. The same holds true in
čgure skating and biathlon.
Ice hockey is the most popular spectator sport in Finland. It is also the only team sport in
which Finland has enjoyed medal success. Finland has won two men’s World Champion-
ship titles (in 1995 and 2011) as well as six men’s and two women’s Olympic medals.
Finnish ice-hockey players Teemu Selänne and Mikael Granlund celebrating Olympic bronze medal
in Sochi 2014. (Finnish Olympic Committee/Europhoto).